In the Jewish mindset, each Sunset is a time to start over.
The new day always started at sunset. So when we say, “This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it “(Psalm 118:4) we need to know the day we are thanking God for actually started at sunset. It is a time we are transitioning to a time of Shabott – Shalom – rest and peace.
This is why we are not to let the sun set on anger and have unforgiveness toward others… If we lay our heads down and night to sleep with unforgiveness and acts of malice running though our minds it is difficult to rest because we are not at peace with others or God.
Resentment and malice always continues to grow deeper in us and takes root and becomes difficult to uproot as each day passes.
Unforgiveness becomes an uncontrollable and untamable weed contaminating the human soul. We end up hating others who were created in God’s image.
If we are to be God’s people, it is our goal to be like Jesus. To be like Him we must love like Him and also take on the the attribute of “forgiveness” and forgive like Him.
We are to live our lives by walking in love and true forgiveness…
Offense hinders our relationship with others and keeps us from progressing into the deeper things of God!
Starting over with others…
Starting over with God…
Let the New Year be your Sunset (Shabbot- out time of meeting with God) … A new beginning.
The tradition in our home is to place 5 kernels of corn at everyone’s place at the table and recount the story that has been passed down for generations. These 5 little kernels have played a big part in our Thanksgiving story here at StoneGable!
The story goes…
On Nov. 11, 1620 the Mayflower landed on the Northern tip of Cape Cod bringing a group of people searching for religious freedom. We call them the Pilgrims. It was not easy to settle in a new place… a new world. It was very hard and the Pilgrims suffered greatly. Winter set in and it was cold and food was in short supply. It is said that during the cold and harsh winter of 1621, that sometimes only 5 kernels of corn were rationed out to eat. No matter how small something is… if we see it as a blessing, it’s huge!
Occasionally we are like terrible-tempered Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip. Lucy comes into the room where here little brother, Linus, is watching TV. He says to her, “I was here first, so I get to watch what I want to watch.” Without a word, Lucy marches to the TV and flips the channel to her program. Linus protests, “Hey! You can’t do that.” Assuming her know it all stance, Lucy says, “In the 19th chapter of the book of Matthew it says, ‘The first will be last, and the last will be first,'” Linus mutters to himself, “I’ll bet Matthew didn’t have an older sister!”
How many times do we allow our flesh to get us in trouble especially our mouth? The bible teaches that we can have victory over the flesh and it comes through the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5: 16-17).
The fact of the matter is, we do not always conquer the flesh; it conquers us. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? We said when we vowed to say no; we yielded when we resolved to stand our ground; we surrendered when we were determined to fight. The disciples of Jesus struggled with the flesh in Gethsemane. Christ knew the force of the inward battle between the flesh and the spirit and admonished them to victory that night. What can we learn from their experience?
* Know that you are vulnerable—”The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26: 41)
* Pay attention—Jesus asked the disciples to watch, be on guard.
* Satan does not give up easily—Luke 4:13 records, “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”
The devil always comes back. Just because we win a spiritual battle, it doesn’t mean we won’t face the same battle again later.
Victory is not a single event but a process. So we need to be on our guard when the Enemy returns with another battle.
Also, we must learn to battle from a different position. The position of standing! “Having done all to stand, stand therefore . . . “ -Ephesians 6:13
We are not to move out of the presence of God. We are just to stand with our whole armor on and do not be distracted by the tactics of the enemy and move out of the Father’s presence. You will WIN every time if you remember this.
11 Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
I am God’s son, I belong to His family, and He is my Dad.
Rom 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Eph 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (4) just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, (5) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
We are all sons of God – a generic term, covering both genders- so SONS and DAUGHTERS of GOD.
At first blush, you might be tempted to think, “But I’m not a natural son, I’m only an adopted son.”
But so many children around the world are natural children, but their parents don’t want them. Children might be an accident of timing, and even if they are planned, the baby might arrive and the parents say, “Oh, no, it’s a girl. We wanted a boy.” Spiritual and physical rejection is a true concept which happens every day. All humanity has been living with rejection since the fall of Adam and Eve. We have a internal emotional void for companionship and relationship which must be filled. We feel if we meet the right person, have the best job, house, and family we will be satisfied. However, the void remains and it can only be filled by a loving accepting reationship with FATHER (ABBA) God.
“For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love” -Ephesians 1:4 HCSB
When one adopts, it is a child which is chosen and rescued and given a different life. So I’m not just any old son or daughter . . . I am adopted into God’s family, rescued from sin and positioned to a life of favor, grace, and inheritance.
Just think of this: God looked down from heaven, and out of all the people He saw, He wants us to be part of His family. He sent His Son, Jesus so we would be a part of His family.WE Must accept HIM and then be born again to enter into the family… GOD did all that for US!He Loved Humanity that much! If that doesn’t make you stand tall, I don’t know what will.
We must remember God’s love for us in immense.
Jer 31:3 The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.”
He loves us with an everlasting love, and the result of that everlasting love is that out of His loving kindness He draws us to Himself. Paul took up this theme in the New Testament, beginning in Eph 2:4… “But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…”
How do we know God loves us? I can think of three good reasons.
First, look around you; just take a good look at God’s marvelous creation. Isn’t that the action of a loving God?
Second, God takes an ongoing and active interest in us. Theologians put that in a category they call the Doctrine of the Immanence of God. No matter how big, no matter how small, God is vitally interested.
But to me, the most important evidence of the immense love of God for us is found in this verse, “But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…” (Eph 2:4)
God is rich in mercy. But God looked down from heaven, and He looked with eyes of compassion, and He saw a world that was drowning in sin, entangled in its own selfishness, and He said, “I better go down there and sort things out.” And instead of coming as the all-powerful King and everlasting Judge, He took on the form of an ordinary man. He took up a trade as a carpenter. He let them rip Him to shreds with a scourge and let them crucify Him. Why? Because He is rich in mercy. How is it that He is so rich in mercy? Because of His great love with which He loved us.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” (Jer 31:3)
This is where we should draw our sense of who we are from – the immense love that God has for us. So first, I’m a son of God; second, I am loved by God…
Third, I am a representative of Christ! We so often look at this in terms of responsibility: I am Christ’s representative, therefore I have a job to do, and I need to be faithful in doing that job. And that’s true, but let’s look at it from a slightly different angle. If I am Christ’s representative, what does that say about what God thinks about me? The key word here is trust. God has looked at you – and me – and said, “I am going to trust this person with this important task.” And based on that trust, He makes us His ambassadors.
Just think about this for a moment. You’re the owner of a multinational company, and an opportunity comes for you to get into the Chinese market. It’s a great opportunity. You need to get over there and talk to them, but for various reasons, you can’t. So you choose an ambassador. You don’t want just anyone. You want someone special as your ambassador.
Here is the Encyclopedia Britannica definition of ambassador: highest rank of diplomatic representative sent by one national government to another
Now listen to this:
2 Cor 5:20Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
Let’s say that again using the Britannica definition.
2 Cor 5:20Now then, we are the highest rank of diplomatic representative sent by King Jesus to earth, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
God has put a lot of trust in us to do the job of being His ambassadors. Here are two reasons why God has put His trust in us to get the job done.
He has filled us with His Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. By filling us with the Holy Spirit, He has equipped us to be His ambassadors. Everything we need to be able to share the gospel with people comes when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
2 Cor 3:6who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
He has given us the most power-filled message of all.
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
The gospel has the power to bring salvation, healing, transformation, the knowledge of God, significance, release. So here’s a little reminder: This is where we should derive our self-identity, our significance, the meaning for our existence and our self-esteem.
1. I am a son/daughter of God
2. God’s love for me is immense
3. I am a representative of Christ, a true ambassador
All of this gives us the ability to walk tall, no matter what anyone else thinks of us.
Remember who you are in CHRIST! You are to become LIKE Him!
In October 2007, Abraham Abdallah, a 32-year-old former dishwasher, pleaded guilty in a New York court to masterminding the biggest identity theft attempted so far. He was attempting to fraudulently gain over $US 80 million. He had 800 fake credit cards as well as 20,000 credit card blanks in his possession, and had managed to steal the identities of Steven Spielberg and Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft). He had also gained the credit records of Warren Buffett, George Lucas and Oprah Winfrey.
In the US in 2002, an estimated 700,000 people were victims of identity theft, were stripped of their savings and their credit ratings, thrown into disputes with banks, loan companies, stockbrokers and even governments because their identities had been stolen and put to criminal use. Can you imagine what it is today?
The 2013 Identity Fraud Report released in February 2013 by Javelin Strategy & Research reports that in 2012 identity fraud incidents increased by more than one million victims and fraudsters stole more than $21 billion, the highest amount since 2009. The study found 12.6 million victims of identity fraud in the United States in the past year, which equates to 1 victim every 3 seconds.
A person’s identity is a valuable thing. Actually, since 1970, more than 7,500 witnesses, and over 9,500 family members have received new identities as part of the Witness Protection Program offered by the US government.4
Our self-identity goes right to the heart of who we are. Here are some questions that people ask that are mostly to do with self-identity.
Who am I? What’s so special about me? Why do I even exist? What makes my life worth anything? How can I make my life count? When I leave this planet, will it make any difference at all that I ever lived? All of these questions go right to the core of who we are, our self-identity.
And because of this, you can bet that our self-identity is an area the devil will mess with big-time. One of his major strategies is to cause us to draw our identity from wrong sources.
Things that are important in this world are a bad source of self-identity
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world. (17) And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Do not love the things of this world because they are passing away.
2 Cor 4:17-18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, (18) while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
There it is again: The things of this world, the things that are visible, are only temporary; but the unseen things of the next world are eternal.
So it’s useless getting our sense of identity, our sense of worth, value or importance from the things of this world.
Remember, we are to be JESUS. We are to become like Him and take on His identity. This is why we are called “CHRISTIANS”.
